Monday, July 27, 2015

I see so many beautiful roses out there made by clever hands, and think - "I can do that"!

Then discover they are not as easy as it looks!

I made this rolled up daisy with scrap sparkly red card - it is very loose and the centre was a big gaping hole so I filled it with glue and yellow seed beads. I think it needed to be a bit tighter!

The smaller pink roses were better but the sparkly card was too thick to roll easily, and again I ended up adding seed beads to the centre - but it was tighter and better looking I thought than the first one.

Then this one was three die cuts (plus a leaf or two) and the instructions were on the back (who knew) so I tried to follow them, and think they were OK but I needed to have cut all three dies and perhaps sprayed them with water to soften them??? I got glue everywhere as well!

I had a beautiful scrap piece of DS card from SU, with flowers on it growing in a garden, so I used the top bit to add my flowers, and some extra leaves as well.

The sentiment is die cut also - a TH die was used for this.

Then hubby asked how it was posted? I can see what he means.......

So I made a quick box for it but have not decorated it yet!

So, another card - yes I now, boring, but I am getting old you know!

Why not go over to Unstampabelles, and see what else is there, and there is still time to get something made and into the challenge before the end on Friday!

Get creative and make some flowers - in fact the twist is to make a garden!

Prize

An embossing folder of flowers

I have so many Spellbinder dies of flowers and other dies of flowers, and why I picked this one to make I do not know....it is an old one, a single plate of metal with the dies cut our of it, so you can cut more than one sheet of card at a time. It makes six single flower cuts in total, and you are supposed to layer them for effect. I did this and didn't really like the effect too much so I threw them in the old pizza box I use to spray stuff, and gave them several bursts of gold spray - they changed colour!! But they did look a bit more interesting so I used them over a lattice die cut, to create the effect of climbing plants I hoped......

Here is the colour change!

This is it in the sunshine with the petals put into place

The pale pink went sort-of goldy green

I used a rub-on for the sentiment

Voila, a card!

I am glad I have at least used this die once now! I purchased it off eBay about two years ago.

Now it's your turn to create a bunch of flowers, and/or a garden scene if you are doing the twist too

Monday, July 13, 2015

My card for the current challenge at Unstampabelles this week is one of the very trendy Screen Cards I have been seeing all over Facebook and the internet!

You use a rectangle fancy die or a punch to cut the "legs" of the screen

(my die was from Stampin' Up).

Mine was decorated with large Gerbera flowers - from a Spellbinder's die

I did sponge in a background of sky and grass,and add a few other dies of leaves and vines

I also embossed some black sparkles into the heads of my flowers

I had some stick-on clouds so added them too

The card is meant to stand as a frieze screen and can have 3 or 4 leaves to it - I used 3!

This is the back view - the centre has a place to write my Greeting - it was a birthday card for a friend who loves to garden.

I hope you like my garden this week

Before I go I will tell you about a reunion I had today with four other 'girls' whom I worked with over 36 years ago - we were all housemistresses together in a boarding house for country girls attending Yr 11/12 in the city. We were only young ourselves then, and had lots of good and fun times together. One of our group was present today only through Skype as she lives in the UK. The rest of us were together and we had all provided food for a scrumptious lunch beforehand, followed by the skyping session. For Marysia in the UK it was only 5.30 am!!! However, it was a fabulous idea and a great meeting up, and I am so please technology had allowed us to do this - it was great to catch up and see each other again after so long and hopefully, there will other times in the future no so far apart in time. Here's hoping you all get together with friends and family and have an enjoyable time too - with or with out Skype!

Monday, July 6, 2015

OMG - JULY! This year has just flown by - BUT it is scallop season! YUMMY!

Yes, it is cold .... but so beautiful too

These two photo's were taken by Greg Faull (a talented photographer) early yesterday morning in Hobart - the wooden seats look like gold in the beams of the rising sun.

However, this post is not about either scallops, fish or beautiful sunrises

It is about

FLOWERS!

The Unstampabelles Challenge #48 for July asks us to create a bunch of flowers, or even better for the twist, to create a garden

This is the prize on offer

I decided to make what I call a wrap around card. I could not find my original template so did it by guesswork - always dangerous! I started with creating a card with two flaps either side, cut down to create an impression of "over the fence". I used a stencil and various smudging techniques to create a woodland behind the fence

I masked off and just played until it looked OK.

Later I added a snail to the other side of the fence!

These are taken at night so the clarity and quality of the photo's are not good - sorry about that!

The cat is on the fence trying to get to the butterfly on the tree

The 'wings' wrap around and are semi-circular, so the card sits on them you can see the small slash to the right where the tag fom the left side slips in

The right tag then drapes across and is slipped into a slot in the fence - you can see the fence and the back of the tree here

The flowers were added to the fence to create the impression of a riot of spring colour!

I hope this gives you an idea of how the garden was created, and the 3D idea as well. It was a little smaller than I intended but I went with what I had!

Now, off you go and see what else the rest of the DT has created and how they made their flowers/gardens.

The, thinking caps on and off the the craft desk for a bit of creative time before entering what you have made in the Challenge